JPS63293921A - Heat-treating equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the contamination of a wafer, by arranging independently a heater and a gas spurting equipment, heating up carried wafers by a heating plate and the heater, and gushing air or gas on the wafer surface from the spurting equipment, to eliminate product attaching to the wafer surface. CONSTITUTION:In a heat-treating equipment 15, wafers 2 sent from an inserting inlet 3 are carried as far as the upper position of a heating plate 9 and stopped, by a conveying belt 8. In this state, the heating plate 9 and a heater 13 are heated, and N2 gas or air is gushed against the surface of a wafer 2 from a gas spurting outlet, via gas introducing pipe 11. Thereby, chloride system product attaching to the wafer 2 surface in the course of etching in a vacuum chamber 18 are eliminated and discharged outward from an exhausting vent 14. As the heater 13 and the gas spurting equipment are independently installed, the wafer can be prevented from being contaminated by oxide and the like which are generated by the deterioration of the heater 13 and gushed together with the gas.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus, and more particularly to a heat treatment apparatus for heating a sheet-like material such as a semiconductor Uninow after etching or the like.

(Prior Art) Generally, in a dry etching apparatus that etches a semiconductor wafer using, for example, chlorine-based gas, when the wafer is taken out from the apparatus after etching,
Corrosion may occur due to reaction between chlorine-based substances such as AI C93 on the wafer and oxygen in the atmosphere.

Therefore, conventionally, heat treatment apparatuses have been widely used in which the wafer is heated using an electric furnace or an industrial dryer to remove the harmful substances.

(One problem to be solved by the invention) However, in the above-mentioned heat treatment equipment, the heat treatment process cannot be performed quickly because it takes time to raise the temperature, and furthermore, the temperature distribution is poor, so the heat treatment cannot be done uniformly. The problem is that it cannot be done.

Furthermore, since the dryer has a built-in heater, there is also the problem that oxides, etc. generated due to deterioration of the heater are sprayed onto the wafer along with the gas, contaminating the evaporator. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is capable of uniformly heating the wafer without contaminating it, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide a heat treatment apparatus that can perform processing quickly.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, a heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a wafer insertion port and a wafer removal port on both sides of the casing, and a wafer insertion port and a wafer removal port inside the casing. A conveying device for conveying the wafers is arranged at the exit, a heating plate is provided at the heat treatment position of the wafers conveyed by the conveying device, and a device is installed for blowing air or gas above the heating plate. This spraying is performed by placing a heater between the device and the heating plate.

(Function) According to the present invention, the wafer transported by the transport device is
In addition to heating with a heating plate and heater, spraying involves blowing air or gas from a device onto the wafer surface to remove products adhering to the wafer surface. Since it is provided separately, it is possible to prevent oxides generated due to deterioration of the heater from being blown onto the wafer together with gas and contaminating the wafer, and it is also possible to quickly raise the temperature. .

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show an embodiment of the present invention.
On both sides of the apparatus main body 1, an insertion port 3 and an ejection port 4 for loading and unloading the wafer 2 are provided at the same height. A conveyor belt 8 is provided which is driven by a pair of pulleys 7 connected to a drive device 5 disposed through a transmission device 6. In addition, the upper part of the conveyor belt 8 has
A heating plate 9 is arranged almost flush with this belt 8,
A gas blowing cover 10 is provided above the heating plate 9. For this gas blowing, a blowout port 12 of a gas introduction pipe 11 that communicates with the outside of the apparatus main body 1 and introduces N2 gas or air is arranged at the upper part of the cover 10. A heater 13 is arranged along the direction of conveyance by the conveyor belt 8. This heater 13 is formed by incorporating an infrared lamp into a quartz glass tube. Furthermore, an exhaust port 14 is provided on the lower surface of the apparatus main body 1 to discharge ejected gas, products on the wafer surface, and the like.

The heat treatment apparatus 15 configured as described above is incorporated into a vacuum treatment apparatus 16, as shown in FIG. That is,
A load lock chamber 17, a vacuum chamber 18 for performing etching, etc., an unloading chamber 19, a N2 gas chamber 20, and a heat treatment device 15 are successively provided, and the load side cassette 2
A semiconductor wafer 2 is transferred from 1 to a load lock chamber 17 by a transfer device (not shown), and after the load lock chamber 17 is evacuated, the wafer 2 is transferred into a vacuum chamber 18. Then, the wafer 2 is subjected to processing such as etching in the vacuum chamber 18, and the processed wafer 2 is sent to the unload lock chamber 19 and returned to the atmosphere, after which it is subjected to oxidation prevention treatment in the N2 gas chamber 20. It is transported to a heat treatment device 15.

In this heat treatment apparatus 15, the wafer 2 fed through the insertion port 3 is transported by the transport belt 8 to a position above the heating plate 9 and stopped. In this state, the heating plate 9 and the heater 13 are heated, and N2 gas or air is supplied from a gas introduction device (not shown) provided outside the main body 1 from the gas outlet 12 via the gas introduction pipe 11. Spray onto the surface of wafer 2. As a result, chlorine-based products adhering to the surface of the wafer 2 due to etching or the like in the vacuum chamber 18 are removed, and the removed products are discharged to the outside from the exhaust port 14. The wafer 2 that has been subjected to the heat treatment is stored in a cassette on the unload side from the take-out port 4.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the heater 13
Since a device for spraying gas and the like is provided separately, it is possible to prevent oxides and the like generated due to deterioration of the heater 13 from being sprayed onto the wafer 2 together with the gas and contaminating the wafer 2. Furthermore, since the heating plate 9 and the heating heater 13 simultaneously heat the wafer 2 from the upper and lower surfaces, the time required to raise the temperature by heating is short and the heat treatment can be performed quickly.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention heats the wafer transported by the transport device using a heating plate and a heating heater, and also sprays air or gas from the device onto the surface of the sea urchins. The purpose is to remove products adhering to the surface of the wafer, and since the heating heater and the equipment for spraying gas, etc., are installed separately, the oxides etc. generated due to the deterioration of the heating heater are not blown onto the wafer together with the gas. It is possible to prevent the wafer from being contaminated by the heat treatment, and also to shorten the temperature rise time, so that the heat treatment can be carried out quickly.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 3 each show an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a front sectional view, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view, and FIG.
This figure is a configuration diagram showing a vacuum processing apparatus incorporating the heat treatment apparatus of FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Equipment body, 2... Wafer, 8... Conveyor belt, 9... Heating plate, 1o... Cover for gas spraying, 1
1-...Gas inlet pipe, 12...Gas outlet, 13...
- Heater, 14...exhaust port.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A wafer insertion port and a wafer removal port are provided on both sides of the casing, and a transfer device for transporting the wafer from the insertion port to the removal port is arranged inside the casing, and the wafer transported by the transfer device is heat-treated. A heat treatment device characterized in that a heating plate is provided at a position, a spraying device for spraying air or gas is arranged above the heating plate, and a heater is arranged between the spraying device and the heating plate. .